Quick Links:

If you’ve given up on "Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Clark Gregg has pretty much given up on you. Even if you’re a self-identified geek.

"Those aren’t geeks. Those are losers," the man who plays Agent Coulson said on the set of his show, somewhere in Los Angeles. (The producers want to keep exactly where kind of quiet, perhaps to keep the fanboys and fangirls away.)

Gregg is himself a self-identified geek. And he’s passionate about the party line at "S.H.I.E.L.D." — be patient.

There has been lots of grumbling from fans about the show, a spinoff of sorts from movies like "Iron Man," "Captain America," "Thor" and "The Avengers."

"We’re turning that into a TV show and we’re doing that with characters that people don’t know," said executive producer Jeffrey Bell. "And so there were expectations."

Not just from the fans, but from critics, who generally supported the show.

ABC’s initial tagline was, "Not all heroes are super."

"But there are still people online who go, ‘We don’t understand why Iron Man isn’t on the show!’ " said executive producer Jeph Loeb. "You know what? He’s not. I love Robert [Downey Jr.] — not coming by anytime soon."

The producers, writers and cast all insist that the slow build "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." went through in its first dozen episodes was necessary to build toward what Loeb described as "the incredible momentum and urgency of what’s going to happen."

Gregg compared it to eating "the healthy stuff first" and saving "the dessert" for later. "We’re deep in dessert right now."

Network TV is not the most patient of mediums. Series get yanked after two or three episodes. And yet the people behind "S.H.I.E.L.D." seem surprised that viewers haven’t been altogether patient with a show that took 12 episodes working toward the good stuff.

Ming-Na Wen, who stars as Agent Melinda May, admitted she’s frustrated with some of the fan reaction.

"I love our fans so much, but they want the end of it already," she said. "We have 22 episodes and, hopefully, years to come of stories and developing characters, and all we want is our fans to just be patient and not come down hard. Go with us. It’s a slower ride."

"Hopefully, a five-year-plus ride," interjected Brett Dalton, who stars as Agent Grant Ward. "And I think all of the stuff that they want, we have in store."

The normally super-secret Marvel — where you need a Level 7 clearance just to get onto the set — is opening up about some of what’s in store in the next few episodes:

• Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) will be revealed as the cyborg Deathlok in the Feb. 4 episode. The character has existed for 40 years in comic books; this is his first appearance on film.

• Also on Feb. 4, comics legend Stan Lee — co-creator of "S.H.I.E.L.D." in print — will make a cameo appearance.

• In an upcoming episode, Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) will cross over from the Thor movies to "S.H.I.E.L.D." She’ll come to Earth in pursuit of Lorelei (Elena Satine), another Asgardian who is a minor villain in the Marvel comics.

• Also upcoming — Bill Paxton will appear in several episodes as Agent John Garrett, a tough S.H.I.E.L.D. operative introduced in the comic books in 1986.

"You start to have people like Deathlok showing up," Gregg said. "You start to understand that a bunch of these different episodes were connected. A lot of the geeks that I respect most … are very excited about where we’re going. So I’m going to choose to work for them."

All this will please some, but not all fans. Some will never be happy because they want the show they imagine in their heads, not the one they see on TV. Which, in the age of the Internet, is true of pretty much every show.

Don't blame it on him. What's he supposed to do? He's got to promote the show, he doesn't write it. He doesn't make the executive decisions, he's just the lead actor. Sure, he didn't have to come across so defensive, but I think it's respectable that he's defending it. I would've been RMEEEE if he publicly dissed it, even if that's what he actually thinks. Nothing worse than an actor shittalking the project/people that's signing their checks.

I caught up with this show not too long ago, and I really like it. It's far from perfect, and they don't really feel like proper SHIELD agents, but I enjoy the chemistry and budding relationships between the characters. My theory is that [Spoiler (click to open)]Skye is Mantis and they'll introduce her father Libra and Zodiac. That would make for an inclusion of a neat part of Marvel history.

I understand where people are coming from, but I don't know why there were such huge expectations. Show's called Agents of SHIELD not "Agents of Superheroes" or whatever. We're gonna get Sif appearing and you know people are gonna be bitching because it's not Loki. YOU KNOW. And honestly I assumed the first few episodes weren't gonna be that great, it's Whedon, but it has picked up so whatever y'all.

I ship Gemma/Ward. NEGL. But apparently Ward and May are still doing the Friends With Benefits things, so who even knows what is going to happen with that.

I am really interested in Skye's backstory and I enjoy the show exploring what happened to Coulson. And I think the larger arc of whatever is going on with the organization that Ruth Negga's character works for is good.

So yeah, I'm glad I stuck with the show even though I thought about giving up on it after the first few episodes. But now we have some larger arcs in play and the characters are better developed and the relationships on the team feel more organic. So I really do enjoy the show now.

I'm assuming there will be a big Sandbox break-out at some point (all 3 of the "shadowy organization that Shield is after" members are there, yes?...Ruth's character, Ice-kid dude, and the scientist they put in the vault???) 'Cause otherwise, it will be a waste of those characters..."and then they were never heard of again..."

I saw the first few eps and shipped Gemma/Ward but gave up on it when it went on hiatus and haven't come back to it. Is it worth catching up? Any good Gemma/ward scenes or even the remotest possibility it'll ever happen.